BGSU

Faculty union OKs contract proposal with 97% yes vote

6.5% retroactive raise,future hikes included

BOWLING GREEN — The Bowling Green State University faculty union approved a proposed contract in a vote that ended Friday.

David Jackson, president of the BGSU Faculty Association, said 97 percent of members who voted supported the contract. It now goes before the university’s board of trustees for approval May 3.

The contract includes a total retroactive raise of 6.5 percent for 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 and raises of up to 9 percent over the next three years. It also creates a $1.8 million fund to bring salaries to an average with those at three other Ohio universities. The chapter represents about 800 full-time faculty members.

Mr. Jackson said the union’s overwhelming support reflects efforts to address items in the contract the membership cares most about.

“It’s because we negotiated for what people wanted us to negotiate for,” he said. “We were fighting for their core values.”

He pointed to language that protects academic freedom and shared governance as well as increased job security for nontenure track faculty as among the keys.

In a written statement, university President Mary Ellen Mazey expressed pleasure at the union’s approval of the contract.

“We believe that it is a mutually beneficial agreement that will allow us to move forward in concert with the faculty to achieve our goals as an institution,” she stated.

If ratified by the board, the contract would go into effect retroactively May 1 and would be the first pact between the university and the union.

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